Happy Halloween Courtesy of Whedonopolis: Charity Screening

This Saturday, October 27, will mark the Fifth Anniversary of the Annual Halloween Screening of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog held by the good folks over at Whedonopolis. As has been the case for the last few years, the online sensation The Guild – starring and written by sci-fi favorite Felicia Day – will also, once again, be a part of the charity event; and a new addition to the big night is the new online series Husbands, which is executive produced by Jane Espenson, who got her start on a little show known as Buffy, the Vampire Slayer for which, of course, Joss Whedon was creator.

Needless to say, this will be a big event for fans of all three online sensations, fans of Nathan Fillion, Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Joss Whedon (et al). But you might be asking, how do I get to go…well, for one, you will have to be in the Los Angeles area this weekend in order to go, as the event is being held at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in the heart of Hollywood.

The doors will open at 6 PM with the big shindig getting started at 7 PM. Tickets for the item are $20 per person and will include your very own collectible interactive Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Goodie and Swag Bag – which is essential because this screening is very hands-on for the audience. You sing your heart out and take part in the “sing-along” with the characters of the Dr. Horrible universe.

But that isn’t all. There will be items for sale once the doors are open, including buttons and raffle tickets for great packages that the folks at Whedonopolis always work hard to create especially for this big night. There will also be selected vendor tables that will be selling merchandise such as comics, t-shirts and jewelry.

Among the raffle prizes this year are a pair of gold tickets for the Grand Slam Los Angeles 2013 convention (a value of $740) donated by the folks over at Creation Entertainment as well as a Farscape DVD box set, a Star Trek TNG Board Game, assorted Geek shirts from GeekdomWear and jewelry donated by Domestic Goddess [among others].

In years past, special guests who have attended the charity screenings include Nathan Fillion, Felicia Day, Alan Tudyk, Joss Whedon and his brothers Jed and Zack and Maurissa T. Whedon. This year, Whedonopolis happily announced that the special guests this year will include (schedules permitting) Ben Edlund, who was a writer and producer on both Firefly and Angel (and who has been a big player behind the scenes for the TV series Supernatural), the aforementioned Jane Espenson as well as Sean Becker, who is the director of The Guild and Greg Aronowitz, who handles the specialty props and illustrations for The Guild. It should be noted that you never really know who just might show up each year for the screening so you can expect a surprise or two.

This year the beneficiary of the charity efforts behind this screening event will be Best Friends Animal Society, a grassroots organization working toward making Los Angeles a “no-kill” city by placing dogs and cats considered “unadoptable” into good homes, reducing the number of unwanted and homeless pets through effective spay and neuter programs.

There will also be a canned food drive for SOVA, a Community Food and Resource Program which responds to hunger in our community by providing individuals and families with the resources they need to regain self-sufficiency and independence. Donations of non-perishable foods are encouraged especially canned meats and fish. If you are able to attend the event and want to take part in the food drive, you can see a list of needed items here.

Attendees are also encouraged to dress up – after all it is Halloween. You can come as your favorite character from any of the three spotlighted online series: Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild or Husbands or any superhero, sidekick or your favorite character.

Folks who will be attending will also be happy to hear there is free on-site parking (and for that to be possible in Los Angeles is a wonderful thing – trust me!) and the theatre where the charity screening is being held is also within walking distance of the MTA.

You can read all about the big event here at the official Whedonopolis website.

For those of you who need a little refresher on what these three online series are all about, here you go:

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog is, of course, about Dr. Horrible aka Billy (Neil Patrick Harris), an aspiring super villain with his own video blog who is attempting to join the prestigious Evil League of Evil, which is led by the legendary “thoroughbred of sin”, Bad Horse, but his plans are usually foiled by the egotistical superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion).

Billy’s life, er rather Dr. Horrible’s life is thrown for a loop when he falls in love with Penny (Felicia Day), a beautiful and optimistic advocate for the homeless who he meets at the laundromat. Unfortunately, his life is complicated even further when Penny begins to date Captain Hammer after he seemingly saves her life.

Faced with the task of impressing the League while desperately trying to win back the girl of his dream and overcome his own incompetence, Dr. Horrible sets out to ruin the day, kill the hero and get the girl.

You can visit both the official Dr. Horrible website here and you can you can also visit the official fan site here.

The Guild is an independent sitcom web series, now in its fifth season, about a group of online gamers. Each season has followed the members of The Knights of Good in their lives both online and offline. The series stars Felicia Day as Codex, Jeff Lewis as Vork, Sandeep Parikh as Zaboo, Vincent Caso and Bladezz, Amy Okuda as Tinkerballa and Robin Thorsen as Clara. Each episode has a running time of between 3 to 8 minutes in length with approximately 10 to 12 episodes each season.

You can learn more about The Guild here.

And, then there is the newcomer to the annual fete, the online series Husbands, which was written and created by Brad Bell (who plays one of the two leads in the series) and Jane Espenson. The first season told the story of newly dating couple Cheeks (Bell), a controversial tabloid personality and Brady (Season Hemeon), a professional baseball player who just recently came out of the closet. After six weeks of courtship, the couple travels to Las Vegas to celebrate the federal amendment for marriage equality only to wind up drunk-married to each other.

Fearing that a public divorce would be devastating to the cause, they stay married, which leads to even more hijinks in the second season, as they try to navigate the pitfalls and triumphs of newlywed bliss in the limelight.

One of the other key cast members is Alessandra Torresani (Caprica), who plays Haley, the best friend of Cheek’s, who is reluctant about her best friend’s marriage, but is doing her alcoholic best to support their decision.

You can learn more about Husbands here.

Once again, the Fifth Annual Halloween Charity Screening of Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, The Guild and Husbands will take place in Los Angeles this Saturday, October 27 at 7 PM. If you can make it, have a great time; and if you can’t there will always be next year.

Happy Halloween to all of our readers!!